I think it is very difficult today to have a reasoned public discourse on any controversial subject. Certainly, election years present a complicating factor.

You accept failure as a possible outcome of some of the experiments. If you don't get failures, you're not pushing hard enough on the objectives.

It would be ideal if we could have an uncontrolled flow of information. But we realized you can't do that.

I think if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to.

The problem we were struggling with within the closed market was what the incentive would be. You probably wouldn't use dollars. But those are all questions that need to be explored.

Uncontrolled access to data, with no audit trail of activity and no oversight would be going too far. This applies to both commercial and government use of data about people.

TIA was being used by real users, working on real data - foreign data. Data where privacy is not an issue.

I really believe that we don't have to make a trade-off between security and privacy. I think technology gives us the ability to have both.

We wanted to be as expansive as possible to make sure we didn't preclude some good ideas.

Mastering facts is knowledge. Mastering knowledge is wisdom.

Never forget that the most powerful force on earth is love.

I've started looking at my own father a bit funny. He assures me, though, that I really am the son of a Scottish postman.

Comedy is commitment and playing a character and falling into the role, and I've been doing that since I was 19 years old.

There is a physical relation between physical things. But it is different with commodities.

It's inevitable to lose from time to time. The point is: don't get used to defeats.

Have the courage "to swim against the tide". Have the courage to be happy.

The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper o'er the sea, Off shot the spectre-bark.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.